Can't Get AHCI To Work - Windows 8

first, great community! here's my problem, really hope someone can help, i just can't seem to get windows 8 to install/use the ahci controller - some specifics:

- new system
- clean windows 8 install (non-pro)
- one new ssd drive and one new hybrid drive, latest firmware flashed
- windows 8 installed on ssd (samsung 120gb)
- bios set to ahci+raid
- bios version current
- installed w8 without pre-installing latest storage drivers during setup, ahci not recognized in device manager
- reinstalled w8 using latest pre-installed drivers during setup, ahci still not recognized in device manager


spent a lot of time researching this issue and none of the suggestions i've come across seem to work, including registry hacks. regardless of what i do w8 just won't recognize my drives as ahci mode - ahci mode is setup in bios but w8 still loads the ide drivers which can be seen in device manager under ata/atapi controllers. what am i doing wrong? why won't windows 8 recognize the bios ahci setting? any help would be greatly appreciated!


chipset - intel pch-c206
hp z1 server
latest bio update installed
cpu - e-1245
ssd (120gb) - operating system
hybrid drive (500gb) - storage
memory - 16gb

Can you post a screen shot of Device Manager?

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2598-screenshots-files-upload-post-eight-forums.html

here it is:



fwiw when I run Samsung's ssd utility it reports that the drive is not in ahci mode and recommends that I change it to ahci mode...

also, I believe my device manager should look something like this when the driver is correctly installed (found this image doing a google search):

Have you installed the Windows 8 Intel Chipset drivers?

yes i did. also updated bios to latest version before install and updated the samsung firmware.